The Pensions Regulator (TPR) published its compliance and enforcement bulletin showing increased enforcement against small defined contribution (DC) schemes that failed to complete the statutory more detailed value for members (dVFM) assessment, issuing £97,750 in penalties across 19 schemes. TPR urged trustees that cannot match the best-performing schemes on governance or value to consider transferring members to a better-value scheme and winding up. The dVFM assessment requirement, introduced in 2021 for certain schemes, is intended to enhance transparency and governance and reduce the risk of poor value for savers. After research showing low completion and awareness of the obligation, TPR ran a large-scale regulatory exercise across 2023 and 2024, including scrutiny of DC scheme returns, and increased its use of dVFM-related powers in July–December 2024 compared with the first half of 2024. The same bulletin reported broadly consistent use of automatic enrolment enforcement powers in the six months to December 2024, including 31,740 Compliance Notices, 18,254 Unpaid Contribution Notices, 21,504 Fixed Penalty Notices and 7,608 Escalating Penalty Notices, with 97% of employers paying worker contributions on time. TPR also highlighted joint work with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions to develop a standardised value for money framework enabling comparisons across contract- and trust-based DC schemes, alongside a shift to a more proactive supervisory approach focused on trustee quality and value, and continued evolution of automatic enrolment regulation using new technologies and improved user experience.

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